I honestly beleieve that there isn't a game on the market that can get the feel of the movies "just right". Movies are narative constructs with no elements of random chance. Once the dice hit the table in a Star Wars RPG, you are going to get a different "feel" from the movies.

Playing Star Wars A New Hope could easily see Luke rolling a despair when trying to retrieve the Princess' message and perhaps destroying it. Han may have shot first in the Cantina, but he could have rolled a 1 on a D20 and blown a hole in his foot.

Games are not movies. Movies are not games. Find the game that does it "close enough" and have fun.

Yes, however I'd consider it poor GMing or poor adventure design to allow Luke to "destroy" Leia's message upon rolling a despair. Perhaps a despair would mean accidentally setting off a transponder that allows the Stormtroopers to track him down more quickly.

But the GM has a LOT of leeway in this system to determine what a "failure", "success", "threat", "advantage", "despair" and "triumph" mean. It doesn't HAVE to mean "you fail completely and are unable to proceed in the adventure."

The "Beyond the Rim" adventure has examples of rolling an Astrogation check to make the trip out to your destination planet.

If you get a good success, you make it there without complication. If you fail the roll, you might have to jump twice, or have a run-in with a bounty hunter before you arrive.

But even on a "failure" you still arrive at your destination. Because that's where the adventure is.

You don't have to interpret the failure of a skill check as a complete failure of that skill unless that's what you think is best for your campaign. Maybe it just means what you tried to do is more complicated than you thought, or it alerts somebody that you're doing it. And so on.

Deadly combat: why must we be treating Wounds as representing actual hits from blasters? Narratively, Wounds can represent any number of physically damaging factors. Further, in Age of Rebellion, characters can have their Wound Thresholds bolstered for a session if their Duty comes up on a d100 roll. IIRC, the technical term for it is the "fanboy ra-ra factor."

Anyway, Wounds and damage are simply mechanical constructs to aid in the narration of the encounter.

In the Star Wars universe, if you get hit with a blaster, you're pretty much dead. So you don't have to narrate a "blaster hit" that outs a character at 4 out of 13 Wounds as an actual "blaster hit." In a firefight, your fatigue and twisted ankles and whatnot can slowly catch up to you to the point where you are physically exhausted, and THEN you get capped. Or more like grazed and knocked out.

As previously commented in the post, the main problem isn't that 2-3 hits kills you (that suits fine for me), the problem its that you are PROBABLY constantly hit.

Its more a possibility than effect problem.

A funny answer tou your first sentence would be: Wounds aren't narrative (or not at all) because Blasters don't do 7 narrative damage, they just do "one more shot and you'll be dead damage" XD

For fatigue or "almost hits" exists Strain, that its that extra effort or even not direct hits or hits that doesn't do enough damage to compromise your physical integrity.

Of course that exists tons of resources, and I love the 2-hit-kill concept, just awesome! But hit% its a bit high, not so abusive, but maybe a bit high.

A few people here said a few nice alternatives to make a bit harder to hit someone

PS: In official errata FFG people said that hit with a simple succes already adds +1 to damage, 7 (Blaster) +1 Succes = 8 total damage. Do I misunderstand it and the correct for stills 7 damage and every extra Success grants a +1?

Every character who wants to engage in combat and survive needs to buy as many defensive talents as he can ge his hands on. That's just the nature of the system, because if you don't have the defensive talents you'll die fast.

If you do manage to get your hands on two ranks of dodge and sidestep, those four upgrades will make survivability much better.

Exceeding Wound Threshold does not kill anyone. All it does is take someone out of action for that combat and grant a single critical hit. Why do people insist otherwise for PCs?

Exceeding Wound Threshold does not kill anyone. All it does is take someone out of action for that combat and grant a single critical hit. Why do people insist otherwise for PCs?

@Josep Maria, yes, damage dealt = damage rating + net success. So you're generally always going to be dealing "damage + 1."

Exceeding Wound Threshold does not kill anyone. All it does is take someone out of action for that combat and grant a single critical hit. Why do people insist otherwise for PCs?

It involves unlearning.

That and many players feel that unconscious or incapacitated is the same as death. "If I can't do anything I might as we'll be dead!"

I find the combat refreshing. I like that the players have to think and be smart. I got tired of being able to stand in the middle of 20 enemies without any risk in most rpg's.

I agree with this. D20 can be so frustrating after a few levels, the PCs essentially become super heroes.

Exceeding Wound Threshold does not kill anyone. All it does is take someone out of action for that combat and grant a single critical hit. Why do people insist otherwise for PCs?

It involves unlearning.

That and many players feel that unconscious or incapacitated is the same as death. "If I can't do anything I might as we'll be dead!"

Thankfully, most of my players caught on very quickly when we started playing FATE. The one who never could catch on wandered off eventually.

I find the combat refreshing. I like that the players have to think and be smart. I got tired of being able to stand in the middle of 20 enemies without any risk in most rpg's.

I agree with this. D20 can be so frustrating after a few levels, the PCs essentially become super heroes.

This was one thing the Babylon 5 RPG by Mongoose Publishing avoided, quite well I might add. At best you might be able to get a hit point total into 30's by 20th level, but a standard sidearm did 2d6 damage, and if you weren't cautious about getting into a firefight, you won't make it past 1st level. We had a Narn bodyguard-type that learned this the hard way after getting lit up like a Christmas tree when he tried to charge into where a bunch of terrorists (with access to PPG rifles) were holed up. The Centauri expatriate PC took no end of amusement from this state of affairs (game was set several years after the end of the TV series).

But yeah, combat in this game is far more dangerous than what most people (especially those weaned on D&D) are used to. Healing isn't super-plentiful (stimpacks have a diminishing rate of return), and the bigger guns can chew up a lot of your Wound Threshold if a PC isn't specifically built to withstand damage.

I keep thinking back to the old cyberpunk 2020 rules. If you guys want deadly...that's the yardstick I use to measure deadly.

I actually find EotE to be decidedly un-deadly thanks to the fact you cannot die without GM fiat or seriously nasty critical hits.

I keep thinking back to the old cyberpunk 2020 rules. If you guys want deadly...that's the yardstick I use to measure deadly.

I actually find EotE to be decidedly un-deadly thanks to the fact you cannot die without GM fiat or seriously nasty critical hits.

I keep thinking back to the old cyberpunk 2020 rules. If you guys want deadly...that's the yardstick I use to measure deadly.

I actually find EotE to be decidedly un-deadly thanks to the fact you cannot die without GM fiat or seriously nasty critical hits.

Ah yes, Splatterpunk2020. I remember a game of that where we played cybered-up cops. My character died to a shotgun blast to the face that was the opening shot of some gangbangers we had stumbled upon. It took about 45 minutes to make the character and after 10 minutes of play time, I was back to the character creation mini-game (lifepath based generation).

We may have had the same game master.

I keep thinking back to the old cyberpunk 2020 rules. If you guys want deadly...that's the yardstick I use to measure deadly.

I actually find EotE to be decidedly un-deadly thanks to the fact you cannot die without GM fiat or seriously nasty critical hits.

Ah yes, Splatterpunk2020. I remember a game of that where we played cybered-up cops. My character died to a shotgun blast to the face that was the opening shot of some gangbangers we had stumbled upon. It took about 45 minutes to make the character and after 10 minutes of play time, I was back to the character creation mini-game (lifepath based generation).

We may have had the same game master.

That Game Master must have gotten around - that sounds EXACTLY like my first (and only) playing of Cyberpunk.

we hit more often than in previous edition. That's a fact... And damage depends on success now.

I still think unpersonalized flat defense lack of something... if not talking about opposed check (d6 style).

D20 defense = 10+talent+range+equipment+maneuvre+rank+dex

EOTE defense = 2 challenge+talent+range+equipment+maneuvre+ nothing+nothing (some ranking bonus and ability bonus ?)

This sounds like it could just as easily be an issue of weak encounter design. If you're standing out in an open field on a clear day that's slighty overcast so the sun can't get in your eyes then you've got defense nailed.

Buuut... if the weathers bad... that's a setback die. If there's a lot of moving machinery...upgrade die. If one side starts tossing out smoke grenades...setback die. On the forest moon of Endor while a larger battle rages all around....upgrade. Outflanked by several groups of enemies? Setback...or upgrade... or both!

Also adversaries can benefit from advantage and threat too, are you including these dice?

Are you factoring in effects from critical injuries?

That dude over there is a nemesis, are you factoring in his Adversary 2 Talent?

Once you start bringing all these things into play the game is going to start changing. Difficulties will go up and down, the narrative mechanic will actually start to matter just as much as the binary result of the hit and the encounter will become something more memorable. Edge works best when shooting is one option, and not always the best one.

While I'll agree that once you do land a hit it's more likely to take out the target character, this game also puts a lot more pressure on the GM to come up with interesting encounters and avoiding metagaming then other systems do.

If your GM is just bringing over the 30x30 well lit and largely empty dungeon chamber from his D&D 4e campaign... yeah combat's going to be quick and deadly. But then again, if you're in a 30ftx30ft well lit empty room shooting at each other with handguns and assault rifles it darn well should be short and deadly.

This man speaks the truth.

Also, something to note:

I like the idea of miniatures in RPG's. I like having a grid and being able to move pieces around on a map. EotE doesn't really need this sort of treatment... but I am a visual person. Plus, when I can see it on the field, I don't have to remember a bunch of stuff just to keep the game going.

At any rate, the reason I bring this up is because of how EotE manages Attack Ranges. The way I see it, Attack Ranges are based upon weapon efficiency, but are hindered by point of origin. In other words, a Rifle can shoot up to Long Range and works well at that Range... but that doesn't mean it performs well against a target that is in Short Range.

The way I manage the Difficulty Dice is by looking at the Range increment of the weapon being used. If it is a LR weapon, then it will recieve 2 Dice when firing at a target at LR. The same gun shooting at a target in Med and Extreme will recieve 3 Dice. At Short, 4 Dice. Engaged, 5 Difficulty. Add on top of this all of the Setback and Challenge possibilities... suddenly you have some extraordinary things going on that makes the characters feel like they actually deserve that 1-shot kill.